Skunk cabbage is the first native wildflower to emerge in Chicago’s woodlands in spring. Other ephemerals will follow, ...

The spadix of the skunk cabbage, however, is thermogenic. It knows how to make its own heat, like a warmblooded animal.

As the legend goes, when the first spring salmon swam upriver, Uncle Skunk Cabbage told them he had kept the people from starving. As a reward, the salmon gave the skunk cabbage a war club, an elk ...

The name suggests nothing of the kind: skunk cabbage. Instead of comely petals, the skunk-cabbage flower consists of a fleshy spathe, interesting but certainly not the common conception of a ...